Thursday, February 21, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama is still looking for John Edwards' endorsement, but he may be getting a little closer.

Obama's campaign has a fundraiser scheduled this noon at the Raleigh offices of Edwards' former law partner, David Kirby. Kirby is in a trial this morning and won't be able to atttend, an aide said today.

But no one has been closer to Edwards than Kirby. The two opened their law firm in 1993 and practiced until Edwards went to the U.S. Senate six years later. They're good friends and sit together at Carolina basbetball games.

Edwards has met recently with Obama and his rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton. Both candidates would love his endorsement. But so far at least, Edwards has held his cards close. Some of his friends have already made their choice.

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It is in John Edwards' best interest to not endorse Senator Barack Obama. As a black woman reading his background history and reviewing key issues with gun control and legal defense strategy of self defense leads me believe that Mr. Obama is not right with the TarHeel State. Read belowBy RAYMOND HERNANDEZ and CHRISTOPHER DREWPublished: December 20, 2007In 1999, Barack Obama was faced with a difficult vote in the Illinois legislature — to support a bill that would let some juveniles be tried as adults, a position that risked drawing fire from African-Americans, or to oppose it, possibly undermining his image as a tough-on-crime moderate.Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image

Illinois SenateBarack Obama being sworn in as a Democratic state senator in Illinois in 1997. He was first elected in 1996 and left in 2004. In the end, Mr. Obama chose neither to vote for nor against the bill. He voted “present,” effectively sidestepping the issue, an option he invoked nearly 130 times as a state senator.Sometimes the “present’ votes were in line with instructions from Democratic leaders or because he objected to provisions in bills that he might otherwise support. At other times, Mr. Obama voted present on questions that had overwhelming bipartisan support. In at least a few cases, the issue was politically sensitive.The record has become an issue on the presidential campaign trail, as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, has seized on the present votes he cast on a series of anti-abortion bills to portray Mr. Obama as a “talker” rather than a “doer.”Although a present vote is not unusual in Illinois , Mr. Obama’s use of it is being raised as he tries to distinguish himself as a leader who will take on the tough issues, even if it means telling people the “hard truths” they do not want to hear.Voting present “was a standard practice in Illinois ,” Mr. Obama said Thursday in an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America show.Speaking from his campaign headquarters in Nashua , N.H. , he described the votes a tactical maneuvers. “Often times I would strategically vote present because we were negotiating a bill or because there was some element in the bill that was unconstitutional or had problems that needed to be tweaked.”Mr. Obama’s aides and some allies dispute the characterization that a present vote is tantamount to ducking an issue. They said Mr. Obama cast 4,000 votes in the Illinois Senate and used the present vote to protest bills that he believed had been drafted unconstitutionally or as part of a broader legislative strategy.“No politically motivated attacks in the 11th hour of a closely contested campaign can erase a record of leadership and courage,” said Bill Burton, Mr. Obama’s spokesman. Speaking Thursday, Mr. Obama said: “I understand we are in the last two weeks in the campaign, people are going to be calling over everything from my kindergarten records,” in a reference to Clinton campaign references to his early presidential ambitions.An examination of Illinois records shows at least 36 times when Mr. Obama was either the only state senator to vote present or was part of a group of six or fewer to vote that way. In more than 50 votes, he seemed to be acting in concert with other Democrats as part of a strategy. For a juvenile-justice bill, lobbyists and fellow lawmakers say, a political calculus could have been behind Mr. Obama’s present vote. On other measures like the anti-abortion bills, which Republicans proposed, Mr. Obama voted present to help more vulnerable Democrats under pressure to cast “no” votes.In other cases, Mr. Obama’s present votes stood out among widespread support as he tried to use them to register legal and other objections to parts of the bills.In Illinois , political experts say voting present is a relatively common way for lawmakers to express disapproval of a measure. It can at times help avoid running the risks of voting no, they add. “If you are worried about your next election, the present vote gives you political cover,” said Kent D. Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield . “This is an option that does not exist in every state and reflects Illinois political culture.”The vote on the juvenile-justice bill appears to be a case when Mr. Obama, who represented a racially mixed district on the South Side of Chicago, faced pressure. It also occurred about six months before he announced an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against a popular black congressman, Bobby L. Rush.State Senator Christine Radogno, a Republican, was a co-sponsor of the bill to let children as young as 15 be prosecuted as adults if charged with committing a crime with a firearm on or near school grounds.

CLINTON FRIEND NR. 4 ----VINA GUPTA -- Gupta once spent the night as a favored guest in the Lincoln bedroom at the White House. . . Gupta found guilty of squandering millions of dollars on his high-profile friends, including $900,000 worth of travel on the Clintons.http://www.blogsofwar.com/2007/05/27/guptagate-bill-and-hillary-clintons-ties-with-vinod-gupta-raise-suspicion/

CLINTON FRIEND NR. 5 ---JOHN HUANG ----Huang visits the White House about 70 times, is briefed 37 times by the CIA, views about 500 intelligence reports, and makes 281 calls to Lippo banks. In 1999 Huang was sentenced for campaign finance violations.

CLINTON FRIEND NR. 6 ---NORMAN HSU --- In February 1992 Hsu plead no contest to one count of grand theft and agreed to serve up to three years in prison and pay a $10,000 fine. He also donated to causes such as the Innocence Project and Clinton Global Initiative. . Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign announced late Monday that it was returning $850,000 from donors associated with Hsu. The amount is one of the largest ever returned by a single candidate, and the action marked a sharp turn for the Clinton campaign.

CLINTON FRIEND NR. 7 ---WEBSTER HUBBELL ---- The 15-count indictment alleges that Hubbell covered up the Rose Law Firm's (Hillary Clinton) involvement in a phony multimillion-dollar land deal . He meets with Hillary Clinton, and follows up by getting together with major scandal figures John Huang, James Riady, and Ng Lapseng. Riady and Huang go to the White House every day from June 21 to June 25, 1994 according to White House records. http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/20/clinton.pardon.02/index.html

CLINTON FRIEND NR. 8 ---ABDUL REHMAN JINNAH --- A Pakistani immigrant is wanted by federal authorities on charges he channeled $30,000 in illegal contributions to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential war chest. On May 18, 2006, a federal arrest warrant was issued by the United States District Court, Central District of California, after Jinnah was charged with illegal campaign contributions and conspiracy.http://www.nypost.com/seven/03042007/news/nationalnews/pro_clinton_dirty_cash_man_flees_nationalnews_christine_field.htmhttp://thecitizensjournalblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/clinton-donor-on-fbis-ten-most-wanted.html

CLINTON FRIEND NR. 9 ---JIM & SUSAN MCDOUGAL --- On April 14, 1997, McDougal was convicted of eighteen felony counts of fraud and conspiracy charges. Clintons borrowed $203,000 to buy land in the Ozark Mountains for vacation homes. McDougal received a full Presidential pardon from outgoing President Bill Clinton in the final hours of his presidency in 2001http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1D61039F934A25750C0A964958260.

CLINTON FRIEND NR. 12 ---PETER PAUL ------ Clinton's entanglement with a thrice-convicted felon named Peter Paul is proof of how long campaign-finance problems can haunt a public official. Mr. Paul accuses Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton of deceiving him into spending well over $1 million on the fund-raiser for her Senate campaign. Mr. Paul contends the Clintons obtained the money by falsely promising that Mr. Clinton would become Mr. Paul's business associate after leaving the White Househttp://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118973400928827314-rv8T2EM0ONBOhA2IkZOvIVHM_Vc_20071013.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

CLINTON FRIEND NR. 13 ---KEITH RANIERE --- A purported pyramid-scheme operator . . . has reinvented himself as the head of an upstate group accused of being a "cult" - and his devotees have pumped thousands into Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential run.

CLINTON FRIEND NR. 14 ---SAMUEL RIVERA ----- Among the 11 public officials arrested in an F.B.I. corruption sting in New Jersey today was a leading Democratic supporter of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign in that statehttp://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/clinton-supporter-arrested-in-nj-corruption-sting/

CLINTON FRIEND NR. 15 ---GARY WINNICK ----- Founder and chair of later bankrupt Global Crossing helped Clinton campaign chair Terry McAuliffe make $18 million out of a $100,000 investment. Winnick also gave $1 million to the Clinton Library. The bankruptcy cost investors millions and costs thousands of employees their jobs. Two years before the crash, Winnick bought a $92 million house, by some estimates the most expensive in American history - including a payment of $66 million in cash.http://www.happinessonline.org/InfectiousGreed/p18.htmhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1709679/posts

In the most recent Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama threw off their gloves and attacked each other for their suspicious and scandalous ties. And you know what? They were both right!Here’s a story this week that makes my point with respect to Hillary:

According to the Wall Street Journal: “Former President Clinton stands to reap around $20 million -- and will sever a politically sensitive partnership tie to Dubai -- by ending his high-profile business relationship with the investment firm of billionaire friend Ron Burkle.

Mr. Clinton is negotiating to end his relationship with Mr. Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. as part of a broader effort to protect the presidential campaign of his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, from potential conflicts of interest.”It’s a little late to worry about conflicts of interest, don’t you think?

Hillary has served in the Senate during Bill Clinton’s tenure with Yucaipa, which began in 2002, all the while in a position to vote on issues that could impact Burkle’s (and, through Bill, Hillary’s) empire. Bill Clinton voiced no concern about a potential conflict of interest when he was handed a large stake in Yucaipa with no risk and very little work required. Now he can just collect the checks.

Moreover, this $20 million payoff does nothing to eliminate the conflict of interest. In fact, it makes it worse. Presumably, since Hillary Clinton shares a bank account with former President Clinton, they can use the money to fund her candidacy for president, if she so chooses. Overall, Burkle has contributed large amounts of cash to the Clintons’ campaigns, their legal defense fund, and to the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. The question is, and has always been, what will Ron Burkle get in return for his generosity to the Clintons? Especially if Hillary wins the presidency.

Now Obama, for his part, was slammed for ties to indicted political fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko, or as Hillary called him, “a slumlord.” (By the way, a photo surfaced recently that suggests Hillary may have her own Rezko scandal to worry about.

Check it out here.) http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm

So the Clintons reap millions as a result of partnering with a foreign government These are troubling times for those of us concerned about pubic corruption.

Commander- in- Chief! Hillary Clinton? I would hate to think what would happen if the wife of Bill Clinton was answering the phone at 3:00 AM.

In the 9/11 Commission Report on page 128 is: a copy of the Presidential Daily Brief received by President William J. Clinton on December 4, 1998 ---- Subject: Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks

What did the President do? Absolutely nothing! – Clinton had dealings in Middle East with the Bin Ladin family – just like Bush! And then the Clintons had to spend their time & energy on the sex scandal.